


half of all birds are trans.

by Mystrothedefender



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Episode: e060-066 The Stolen Century Parts 1-7, Gen, Transgender
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-28
Updated: 2019-02-28
Packaged: 2019-11-07 03:33:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17952833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mystrothedefender/pseuds/Mystrothedefender
Summary: Barry has always been uncomfortable talking about his gender, but he knows he can trust the crew of the IPRE.





	half of all birds are trans.

Being transgender is not as difficult on the material plane as on the plane of thought, there are no injections or surgeries. You simply find someone who is good enough at magic to do those things. Although of course finding someone that good at magic can take time and if the spells are not performed correctly things can go wrong, some people take advantage of that; if only one wizard in a city is good enough to perform such magic their waiting list could get incredibly long, or their price could get incredibly high.

Barry grew up in a somewhat rural area, as a teen he travelled almost a week to find a cleric who was able to magic away the oestrogen in his body and make it produce testosterone.

Once a year he returned to that cleric and the spell was recast.

When he joined the Starblaster crew he made sure Merle knew his situation and was skilled enough to perform the spell correctly.

As he approached Merle’s ‘office’ to have the spell recast he was surprised to see Magnus walking out of the room.

He put on a smile, aiming to hide the tense feeling in his gut from showing on his face; he’d hoped he wouldn’t see anyone on his walk through the halls, the spells were disorienting and unpleasant, he always got anxious in the lead up to them.

“Oh, hey, Barry!” Magnus said loudly as he closed the door, taking a few steps to close the gaps between them. “What are you doing on this side of the ship?”

Barry felt himself stiffen at the question, but again he tried not to let that show. “I was just, uh, hoping to talk to Merle.”

Magnus nodded, “Yeah, me too uh, I have a…” he shifted on his feet, his eyes turning away for a moment, “A bathroom problem, that’s what I have.”

Barry chuckled weakly, crossing his arms, “Ok,” he said in response to Magnus’s obvious lie.

Magnus let out a soft huff, “Ok, I don’t have a bathroom problem, I just uh,” he shifted on his feet again.

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, Mags, I know what it’s like to have, uh, ‘Bathroom problems’.”

Magnus shook his head and waved his hand dismissively, “No, no, I _want_ to tell you, Barry, you’re my friend and my crewmate and we’re going to be spending a lot of time together probably.” He let out a small huff, closing his eyes and straightening himself to his full height, a full head taller than Barry. “Barry, I am transgender,” he put his hand up to his chest, “Every year I have to find a magic-guy to recast a transitioning spell on me so that I don’t grow boobs and stuff.”

“You’re getting your spell renewed?” Barry said, smiling widely as Magnus reopened his eyes. “That’s-That’s why I’m here too,” he said, he tried to sound enthusiastic, but truthfully he hated telling people, he liked being as stealthy as possible when it came to his identity, it wasn’t anyone else’s business.

“No way!” Magnus gasped, he let out a small laugh, “I had no idea I was around so many of my own kind!”

Barry chuckled, his brow furrowing slightly, “So you know about, uh..?”

Magnus nodded, rubbing the back of his neck, “Lup? Yeah, she’s pretty open about it, there’s no way I wouldn’t know.”

Barry mimicked Magnus’s nod. He wished he had the courage to be as open about his identity as Lup was.

It had been one of the first things he’d learned about her; “Taako and I are identical twins, but I’m transgender so we didn’t stay all that identical”, the conversation had made his stomach flip. The fact she could so easily talk about it, and he couldn’t bring himself to tell her in kind, he was almost ashamed of himself.

“Uh,” he began again after a moment, kind of wanting the conversation to end so that he could get the whole recasting affair over and done with, “I’m actually on my way to get my spells recast now, Merle said he could see me today.”

Magnus glanced back towards Merle’s door, “Really? You think he meant to have us seen close together so that we might have this conversation?”

“Maybe,” Barry said with a shrug, he’d only known Merle for around 8 months and he couldn’t say he liked him all that much, but he didn’t seem that underhanded, “Probably just wanted to get it over with though, it’s uncomfortable for the person casting too isn’t it?”

“What do you mean uncomfortable? I didn’t feel a thing.” Magnus looked Barry up and down for a moment. “So, hang on, it hurts you? It’s not meant to hurt, you know that right?”

Barry frowned, recalling all the times back home that he’d gone to see the cleric, he couldn’t remember a single time it hadn’t made him feel awful, “I’ve been doing this almost 30 years and it’s hurt every time,” he explained.

“I’m going on 10 years and it’s never hurt me, maybe the guy you saw wasn’t super good at magic.”

Barry felt himself blush; all that time and it turns out he might have been doing it wrong. “Well… I guess we’ll see. I’m uh,” he stepped away from Magnus and began to walk towards Merle’s door, “I’ll see you at dinner.” He bit his lip, pausing and looking at Magnus again, “Don’t tell anyone about me, ok?”

Magnus held his hands up, “Of course not, I’ll keep your secret if you keep mine.”

Barry smiled and nodded, “Yeah, sure… It was great talking to you.”

‘You too, buddy,” Magnus said as he turned to walk off.

As Barry watched him walk away he felt a wave of exhaustion hit him. He let out a soft huff and put his hand to his forehead, conversations about his situation always put him on edge, the constant unease was so tiring. He decided that after seeing Merle he’d treat himself to a nice nap.


End file.
